Service-providing industries added 107,000 jobs in October, down from 130,000 in September. Among the service industries reported by the ADP National Employment Report, trade/transportation/utilities added the most jobs with 40,000 over the month. Professional/business services employment rose by 20,000, while financial activities shed 5,000 jobs.

"According to ADP National Employment Report findings, the U.S. private sector added a total of 130,000 jobs during the month of October, well below the average of the last twelve months,” said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP. "Small business growth was down from the previous month, while payrolls among large enterprises showed an increase."

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, "The government shutdown and debt limit brinksmanship hurt the already softening job market in October. Average monthly growth has fallen below 150,000. Any further weakening would signal rising unemployment. The weaker job growth is evident across most industries and company sizes.”

Businesses with 49 or fewer employees added 37,000 jobs in October, while employment levels among medium-sized companies with 50-499 employees rose by 13,000 and employment at large companies – those with 500 or more employees – increased by 81,000.

The matched sample used to develop the ADP National Employment Report was derived from ADP payroll data, which represents 411,000 U.S. clients employing nearly 24 million workers in the U.S.

The ADP report is a proxy for the official jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics each month. Usually, the two are released in the same week — ADP on Wednesday and the jobs report on Friday — but due to the government shutdown, the September report was released just last week, and the October report won't be released until November 8.

Employment growth has been tepid in recent months. The rolling 3-month average of nonfarm payroll creation slipped to 148,000 in September, down from 224,000 in April.

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